The Summer of Superman means big things for the whole Superman family, so expect some fresh takes on everything that makes Metropolis special, including his cousin, Supergirl. This time, Kara comes to us with a Silver Age twist evocative of Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber’s Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen in its gleeful embrace of a wilder time in the Superman canon, armed with modern storytelling sensibilities. This is writer/artist Sophie Campbell’s first ongoing series with DC, so we took this opportunity as the weather heats up to talk with her about first impressions, thought balloons, princess sharks and the upside of being a “junior Superman.”

This is your first significant run with DC Comics. What can you tell us about your personal history and relationship with DC and with Supergirl in particular? Why start with Kara?

I did stuff with Shelly Bond twenty years ago at Vertigo, and some short stuff. There’s always been things that almost happened, or stuff I wanted to do and it just didn’t happen for whatever reason.

The Supergirl stuff, I wasn’t seeking it out. DC came out of the blue asking, “Hey, do you want to do Supergirl?” And I said yes.

This year in particular, we’ve got more people looking to Superman than we have in a long time. It’s very easy for some people to cast Supergirl in their minds as a “junior Superman.” What do you think it is that Supergirl can do that Superman can’t?

Well, I don’t know if being a “junior Superman” is a negative thing. There’s less you have to shoulder on the character. She’s related to Superman, she’s from Krypton, but she’s warmer, I think. She has a different approach. I think being a “junior Superman,” and I guess the same goes for Superboy, you’re not as lofty. The character can get away with stuff that Superman might not do. Like, in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, she gets drunk. Superman would never do that! He has to maintain a different image.

There isn’t that myth to live up to.

Right! The myth. That’s a good way to put it.

When I think about Supergirl, it’s always in the context of her as a survivor. She carries the memory of Krypton in a personal way that isn’t quite as real to Superman because he never spent any time there. How do you see that affecting her? I’ve seen people go one way, where she’s laden by it, but I’ve also seen writers go another way, where she perseveres and keeps that sunnier attitude despite that.

That’s kind of how I’m going at it. I feel like in Woman of Tomorrow, which is great, Tom [King] and Bilquis [Evely] have that [first] approach covered. I don’t have anything to add to that aspect, so I’m going in the other direction. I feel like a lot of my older comics are very gloomy. Lots of goth stuff. My initial instinct for almost everything is like, “What if the character’s crying all the time? What if it’s dark and solemn and somber and stuff?” That’s my nature, I guess. With Supergirl, I’m not going to do that this time. I really connected with a lot of the Silver Age and Bronze Age stuff. So, I’m going to do that.

One thing that really delighted and surprised me was all of the research that clearly went into this. I’m not going to scare people away. If this is someone’s first Supergirl comic, it absolutely works. But as someone who’s been following her for a long time, this first issue is just laden with Pre-Crisis history. From obscure MacGuffins like the yellow ring–

The yellow ring of Nor-Kann!

Yes! And also, entire overarching premises, like the time that Supergirl was an actress on a daytime TV show. I wanted to talk about what the homework process was like for this, and what you discovered about Supergirl digging into this assignment.

I had actually read some old Supergirl stuff prior to this. When I was a kid, my dad had this big Superman collected book that was published in 1971. It’s got this red cover with shiny Superman letters on the front. It was random selections from 1938 to 1971, and Supergirl is in some of it. I had been kind of familiar with a little bit of the Silver Age just from that book. When I came on board, they gave me some Silver Age stuff to read, and some modern age comics, too. One of my main touchstones for this was the 1972 series, which only lasted ten issues.

Oh, yeah! The one where in the last issue she saves Prez, Teen President?

I love that issue! And, you know. I bought a bunch of hard copies. I bought the Silver Age collections. I bought the ’80s trades. So, they sent me a bunch of stuff, but I also did my own research on my own time. I would sample a bit from each era. The ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ”90s and so on. And the stuff I connected with more, I’d go back and finish. Like, the ’70s stuff was really fun. That’s what I started with it.

There’s a little bit of the CW TV show in there.

Yeah, that had been my main touchstone besides that old book my dad had. I was a huge Arrowverse head. I loved Supergirl, but The Flash was my main show for a while. I watched all the crossovers.

The Crisis on Earth-X one was great.

LOVED that. Whenever Barry and Kara got to hang out, that was the best. They would make fun of Green Arrow. I love that.

I think the main thing I discovered was how insane her older comics are. You can’t do those kind of comics anymore.

Yeah! Superman is straight up abusive to her in those early stories! “Oh, you can’t form relationships with anybody! You have to be my secret weapon!”

“By the way, I’m putting you in an orphanage.” And there’s this free-wheeling energy to it that I really love. When it’s like, Superman putting Kara into an orphanage is psychotic.

“But don’t get adopted!”

And like, nobody questions it. You just have to go with everything they throw at you. One of the panels that really stuck with me early on was in a big compilation where she gets adopted. And prior to that, she had these Linda robots that would take her place at the orphanage whenever she was off doing superhero stuff. So, there was this one panel where she’s talking to her Linda robot, and the Linda robot is going into this secret compartment inside of a hollow tree. And Kara’s like, “I’m sorry, Linda Robot, but I won’t need you anymore!” And the robot goes, “I understand, mistress! I'll be here if you ever need me… waiting!”

So, I went to my editor and asked, “Has anyone ever followed up on this? Is she still in that tree, waiting?” And apparently, nobody’s ever followed up on that.

Every panel is just like, “Wait, what?” There’s hardly any moment-to-moment storytelling like we do now. It’s always one panel is Kara talking to her Linda robot, and the next panel, Kara’s spinning into her super suit and is off to the city!

I want to talk about first impressions. When I opened this comic to the first page, the first panel was one of the strongest first impressions I have ever seen from a modern comic book. How do you do a first page, or even a first issue, that will keep people coming back?

It’s tough, for sure. But at the same time, I try not to think about it that much. I just have to do my thing and hit the ground running. I love sharks. I love princesses. That’s what it should be. Like, King Shark should have a daughter named Princess Shark. It’s a no-brainer, right?

Apparently, King Shark does not have any children. But who knows what other shark people are there?

There’s a whole bunch of shark people in the Ninth Tride of Atlantis. So, there’s room for her.

There you go.

This comic is giving us full-on thought balloons. None of those narrative text boxes with the logos in the corner. We are just fully back. I want to address that choice.

Right, there are so many thought balloons in those old [Supergirl] comics. Why don’t we do this anymore? They’re not “serious” enough, or something? Let’s just do thought balloons. Some people use captions in place of thought balloons. It’s still the character talking. Is the resistance to it that thought balloons look silly? Is that the problem? I don’t know, it’s weird. It makes it feel like an older comic and automatically gives it that vibe.

I think it helps set expectation for the tone.

Yes, absolutely.

I asked our community in the DC Official Discord what questions they had for you. The people of the DC Discord want to know which of Supergirl’s friends from her past might find themselves in your series?

Well, Dick Malverne’s still dead, unfortunately.

Yeah, RIP. What about Jerro the Merboy?

He’s on my list. You never know if Jerro might show up. Clarissa Giltedge is in the first issue. I think she was only in one issue [1962’s Action Comics #296], dressed like an Egyptian pharaoh. Terry Blake is in issue #2, from the ‘70s book. She was Kara’s college roommate, and not technically from Midvale, but I put her in anyway.

This issue also has Lar-On, the Kryptonian werewolf!

I love him. He’s all pink, for some reason.

In a broader sense, what do you think readers should expect from Supergirl over this first year of the comic?

It’s going to be fun! There may or may not be some of my pet goth elements in it. There’s going to be two new Super Pets.

I may have seen a rabbit in issue #1…

Yes, Candy the Super Rabbit.

We got a name!

It’s going to be weird and silly, but also have real emotions.
 

Supergirl #1 by Sophie Campbell and Tamra Bonvillain is available this week in print and as a digital comic book.